TV brands beginning to appear on Pinterest

If you work in social media in the TV industry, these are exciting, stressful times. And now there’s yet another social network where TV brands are beginning to appear. It’s called Pinterest, which describes itself as an “online pinboard” of things you love, and it’s beginning to draw a larger audience beyond your standard early-adopters (an estimated 40 million uniques) — especially women.

Flingo makes your remote more social with A+E Networks as launch partner

To understand exactly what TV is, you often need to pause and remember how intensely passive the viewing experience is for most. You come home extremely tired, grab a snack and veg out in front of your favorite prime time programming on linear, Netflix, Hulu, iTunes or other content. Flingo‘s announcement at CES just made the easy, laziness and perfect activity of vegging out a lot more social by adding a component to their platform that lets you share to Facebook and Twitter with one click of the remote.

Boxee’s social roadmap for the coming year

Boxee describes itself as, “the one box your TV needs.” Just a year ago, the company announced a content partnership with CBS and an iPad app, an announcement that now seems dull compared to what the New York-based company announced at CES this year. Boxee took the massive attention around the Consumer Electronics show to announce that 2012 will be the year of an extremely deep Facebook integration and the influx of live TV.

Social TV startup ZAPITANO raises 1.7 million euros [Interview]

Another social TV company has been funded. ZAPITANO, which is another Berlin-based startup, has been financed with 1.7 million Euros. Their funding comes from a combination of a VC and private investors. Interestingly, this startup will be primarily focused on the German TV market as it prepares to grow. While it’s too early to make any predictions on how their product (a second screen app) will compare to the long list of competitors they face in the US, it’s definitely smart that they’re going after the German TV market, where they might be able to grow a sizable user-base that positions them well to be acquired in a few years if one of the already established apps take off.

Fox News puts Twitter hashtags to work for debate

Update: This morning Twitter released some data around last night’s debate, where Fox News used #answer and #dodge hashtags to track real-time feedback from viewers. “After a slow start and a net #dodge rating for an answer on his recent attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital, Gingrich elicited strong #answer ratings for much of the remainder of the debate,” explains Twitter, which posted this graph…

Trends among the 700,000 Golden Globe tweets

One the leading social TV data companies, Networked Insights analyzed the conversations from the Golden Globes last night. Besides the winners being announced, 48% of the conversations were about the red carpet. They also provided us with an extremely interesting analysis, which will help answer our question about Gervais’ power on the Globes.

Michelle Obama joins Twitter in time for iCarly cameo

The first lady, Michelle Obama joined Twitter last week as @MichelleObama with the intention of translating her influence in real life to help her husband, President @BarackObama campaign for re-election in 140-character updates. She’s already amassed more than 320,000 followers and has been very clear that her staff will be posting, except when you see “-mo” signed at the end of one of her tweets.

E! and Mass Relevance visualize celebrity ‘sizzle’ for Globes

As everyone awaits the annual Ricky Gervais roast of celebrities, the Golden Globes, you might be wondering which celebrities will be getting it the worst, therefore generating the most buzz. If there’s one thing we know Twitter, Facebook and the social web is good for during awards shows, it’s laughing or oooing at the top moments.

Will Ricky Gervais’ tweets drive Golden Globe ratings?

A year ago we wrote about the Golden Globes not fairing so well in ratings even though Ricky Gervais was a great tool for drumming up buzz. While Gervais didn’t trust Twitter at first he’s now back in full force and has promised to tweet backstage so, “you don’t miss me when I’m not on air,” he said on his blog. He even added, “Might be more fun as I have no TV censorship.” The Gervais chatter has been high this past week as viewers wait and hope that he’ll make a fool of the celebrities in the room like he’s done so well the past two years. Social TV data company NM Incite even looked at 7,000 tweets over two days to prove this.

Univision launches news app for iPhone

Univision, the leading media company serving Hispanic America, launched a new iPhone app for news called Noticias Univision, which can be downloaded here. Univision Network has a huge reach, serving 97% of US Hispanic households. The app’s main purpose for now will be to deliver their 24/7 news coverage, and later this month users will be able to “report breaking news by uploading photos and videos,” and share their favorite Noticias Univision content with friends and family on Facebook and Twitter, according to their release.

CES 2012: GetGlue announces $12 million in financing

GetGlue announced a new round of financing today, $12 million led by by Rho Ventures. The New York-based company has created a culture within their environment around checking into TV shows, movies and more. GetGlue stickers, that were once compared to Foursquare badges are now popping up in real life on laptops and are being created by most TV brands. The company raised $6 million in November 2010 from TimeWarner, RRE Ventures, and Union Square Ventures, and it’s now boasting 2 million users and 350 million check-ins (scroll below for GetGlue’s infographic on 2011)…

CES 2012: Xbox wins top TV innovation award

With 66 million consoles sold and 40 million Live subscribers, Xbox rarely gets credit for being a force in television. But at CES, Xbox won the overall “TV Innovator of the Year” award, beating out category winners like Samsung 3DTV, MobiTV and thePlatform. Organizers noted Microsoft’s aggressive strides into TV over the last year, from Bing search and Kinect navigation to new partnerships with 40 new TV and entertainment providers.

How Google+ Hangouts will transform traditional TV broadcasting

Sarah Hill is the interactive anchor at KOMU-TV 8, the broadcast lab for the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She also has over 350,000 followers on Google+, where she’s been blazing a trail with Google Hangouts with the help of interactive director Jen Reeves.

KOMU is the first broadcaster to integrate the live video chats on-air. Since then, other TV shops have been experimenting with Hangouts. Yesterday, PBS held one. And today, msnbc will be holding a Hangout from 4-5 pm. ET, simultaneously streaming it on NBCPolitics.com.

CES 2012: Roku launches in the UK

Roku made its European debut today, launching in the UK. “Consumers living in those two countries can choose from two of Roku’s best-selling models in the U.S. – the Roku LT and the Roku 2 XS – with both now available for pre-order at Amazon.co.uk,” according to their release. As the internet-connected, non-MSO set-top box industry matures, it’s great to see the international growth. Roku recently launched a stick that can turn any TV into a smart one and are now bringing a few of their devices to TV viewers across the pond.

CES 2012: Xfinity’s AnyPlay brings live TV to tablet

As promised Comcast’s Xfinity announced today it’s beginning to roll out AnyPlay, a new live TV service for the iPad (and soon the Motorola Xoom, as well.) Subscribers will be able to watch any channels included in their Xfinity package within range of their home WiFi. “Currently, we’re making AnyPlay available to Xfinity HD Triple Play customers in areas of Denver and Nashville at no additional charge,” explains Mark Hess, SVP of Video Product Development. “If you don’t live in Nashville or Denver, don’t worry, as we plan to add more markets in the coming months.”

CES 2012: Showtime Anytime iPad app is finally here

After a long wait since the original announcement, Showtime Anytime, the network’s second-screen on-demand app has arrived (for iPad). Showtime now boasts a catalog of impressive shows ranging from Dexter to Homeland to the recently-premiered Shameless, Californication and the brand new House of Lies. The free iPad app features more than 400 hours of original shows and movies.

CES 2012: Peel rolls out updated app with social TV features

The social guide app Peel — which doubles as a remote control if you buy the optional “Fruit” device — has just relaunched an updated version for iOS (iTunes) that adds social features to the experience. You can now like, recommend and check-into shows from the app, and those social activities roll up to an activity feed of your friends. The more you participate, the better Peel gets at program recommendations.

CES 2012: Microsoft shows how Kinect can make TV social

Microsoft’s annual CES keynote — its last, according to the company — was light on product announcements, but it did demonstrate how Kinect can transform traditional TV into a social, interactive experience. Using PBS Sesame Street and National Geographic as examples (promotional video below), CEO Steve Ballmer showed how Kinect can engage kids to participate in educational TV. Here’s a video:

CES 2012: Myspace and Panasonic launch ‘Myspace TV’

Justin Timberlake took the stage at CES 2012 to help introduce Myspace TV, a new social TV service presented by MySpace and Panasonic. That’s right, Myspace TV, coming this spring. “We’re ready to take television and entertainment to the next step by upgrading it to the social networking experience,” explains Timberlake, who’s a co-owner of Myspace. Can Timberlake bring Myspace back?

CES 2012: Samsung adds TV voice and motion control

Samsung took the wraps off “Smart Interaction,” a new feature for its next-generation TVs that allows voice and motion control — even facial recognition. This is the second TV manufacturer to announce voice control at CES (see our earlier story on Lenovo). Samsung explains: